CES Day Three wrap-up: Displair, wireless charging in cars, and lifestyle tech (video)

LAS VEGAS—It’s the third day of CES, and everything’s starting to wind down. Most of the companies made their big announcements earlier in the show, so we took a look at some of the smaller—but still awesome—products.

Displair wowed us with a machine that combines a stream of air with tiny water droplets to create a virtual display that appears in front of you. Watching a movie or playing a video game on a screen made of water is a great party trick, and it's just plain cool tech.

Toyota showed off some wireless charging pads that will debut in its 2013 Avalon sedan. The pads support the Qi (pronounced “chi”) wireless charging standard, which means they’ll work with several devices, including the Nokia Lumia 920 and HTC’s Windows Phone 8X. This means that soon you’ll be able to jump in your car, toss your wireless charging-capable device onto the mat, and charge your device while you’re driving. The best part about the Qi standard is that the device doesn’t have to be perfectly positioned in order to charge.

This year’s CES was marked with lifestyle tech, including car tech, fitness tech, and connected appliances. In other words, electronics makers are trying to work their way into our everyday lives, starting with the one device we’re never without: our smartphone. With this new lifestyle tech, you can tune your car’s radio, track your vital stats, and even control your home appliances from your phone.

LG added near-field communication (NFC) tags to its smart appliance line, and when you scan the tag with your smartphone, you can wirelessly register and link your fridge to your oven to your phone. Samsung added another layer of connectivity to its already smart refrigerators with Evernote integration and calendar and weather apps.

This year’s CES saw an explosion of fitness tech, including smart pedometers, smart scales, and even a fork that measures how fast you’re eating. Fitbug announced a new, cheap fitness tracker called the Fitbug Orb, while Zensorium demonstrated its flagship Tinke fitness device. The Tinke measures heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood oxygen level, as well as heart rate variability over time. HAPIlabs’ electronic HAPIfork measures the length of time between your bites so it can tell you (by vibrating) to slow down.

That’s it for this year’s CES—it was an awesome show, and we saw some cool gadgets and amazing technology (as well as some, um, sort of awkward moments). Thanks for staying with us!

For more blogs, stories, photos, and video from the nation's largest consumer electronics show, check out complete coverage of CES 2013 from PCWorld and TechHive.